Happy Halloween!

We carved our pumpkin Thursday night. Sadly there aren't pumpkin patches here so I have no pictures of the boys in a wagon of hay with the autumn sun on their golden heads or dragging the biggest pumpkin they could find or move. Instead we bough a giant pumpkin at Tesco weeks ago, which ended up rotting around the stem before we could even carve it. We bought a bunch of small ones for cooking and a medium sized one for carving. We've already roasted one, which Silas thought was pretty exciting itself, so carving one was cause for even more craziness.
Here's the cleanout. Silas did not want to stick his hands in the goo and kept asking us to loosen up the guts so he could scoop it out. Meanwhile, we had to hang on to Emmet to keep him from diving in head first. Good thing the pumpkin wasn't much bigger or he really would have climbed inside.

Silas flipped through the book of pumpkin patterns Grandma Lise sent us last year and picked out a really complicated castle design. We started this project after dinner, so we had to talk him down to teh gargoyle/dragon design instead. But because of the little saws that came with the book he was able to do a little of the carving himself. "Move it up and down and push toward the jagged edge." I think he managed about three inches of the curved section above the dragon's head. But he did actually get to remove a piece, so he felt he accomplished something, and was really proud of himself.

Here's the finished pumpkin with the boys, and then with the candle behind it. Orrin hasn't quite perfected jack-o-lantern photography, but you get the idea. Hope everyone had a very happy and safe and warm and cosy Halloween.

Halloween: early edition

Well, when I first uploaded these pictures it was an early edition. Now, it seems, not so early. But who knows it could be weeks before I get pictures of the boys up in their Halloween costumes. How embarrassing really, that Orrin posted the last two contributions to this blog. And now that I look at it, maybe this will post as Orrin too, as he is logged on. Oh well, you can tell it's Bridget, I'm sure. Anyway, we had a small Cranium party last Tuesday and Orrin helped me make ghastly treats of skeletons (chocolate cookies) and severed fingers and eyeballs (peanut butter fudge covered in white chocolate). I also made pumpkin seed brittle, turmeric shrimp with black sesame seeds, guacamole with blue cheese and tortillas cut out in Halloween shapes (bats, ghoasts, pumpkins and cats) and crisped in the oven. The only food dud of the night was a stupid Martha Stewart recipe of butternut squash cut out in leaf shapes on top of pumpernickel and goat cheese. Looked cute- tasted horrible.
Emmet helped decorate the house, albeit in the near nude, with skeletons, spiderwebs, ghoasts, pumpkins, and bats.
Silas had a Halloween party at pre-school last week and went dressed as a pumpkin and returned with his face painted as a tiger. He wanted to leave it on all day, which we did, even though it meant having to wash his pillowcase after his nap. He also recieved a haircut that night. It was a bit unfortunate because due to the exaggerated eyebrows of his tiger face, his bangs are a little on the short side now. It had been about 8 months since his last haircut, so I suppose the shorter I cut it now the longer it will last until it's in his eyes again.
We carved our pumpkin tonight and the boys were in top form. There are some adorable pictures to be shared. And I hope, though I make no guarentees, that I will be back to more regular posting schedule.
In other news, although we have no date yet, we do have confirmation from Orrin's work place that we will be moving home, that is, back to Minnesota at Christmas time. I'm guessing we'll be flying to Chicago mid to late December hang out with our parents for the season then up to MN the first few weeks of January where maybe some of our shipments and storage will have arrived.